After a German friend complained about not being able to find good soft pretzels in New York, Alexis Faraci decided to make them herself. Now she works out of a commercial kitchen on City Island to sell her goods to the pretzel-starved masses. More

Soft pretzels are just about perfect. They're chewy, salty and great with everything from a beer to a salad. The thing is: they're chewy. And gluten-free flour doesn't do chewy well. But this year I decided I didn't want to go through another football season or Oktoberfest without one. So I started tinkering with a gluten-free recipe. More

This recipes makes traditional soft pretzels. The tapioca starch and xanthan gum provide a pleasant chewiness to the pretzels. Substituting a different starch or omitting the xanthan gum will affect the texture of the pretzels. More

For those that haven't had many quality Philly-style pretzels before, one bite from The Pretzel Bakery in D.C. and you'll never look at Auntie Anne's the same way again. Owner Sean Haney brings his small neighborhood pretzel shop to the Capitol Hill neighborhood. More

For the last quarter century or so, much of New York City has been a German bread desert. The only way to get a loaf of freshly made bauernbrot was to trek out to Central Queens, where neighborhoods like Ridgewood and Middle Village still cling to vestiges of German ethnic tradition. Luckily, however, tastes change, and that's where David Rothe and Volker Herrmann saw their opportunity. More

These Tailgate Cupcakes are the holy trinity of salted caramel: salted caramel cake filled with yes, salted caramel, topped with salted caramel, and finished with a shower of crunchy coarse grained salt. More

To up the testosterone in these manly cupcakes, Arrick has incorporated a duo that's more at home at your local bar than in a pastry shop: beer and pretzels. The beer here is your choice of stout, Guinness is good but a darker, more chocolaty stout is even better. Since the stout is baked into the cake base and swirled into the icing, you're looking for a stout full of roasty caramel-and-coffee notes. More

As one might assume from the name, these Everything-but-the-Kitchen-Sink Cookies are a sweet free-for-all. Stacy Adimando, author of The Cookiepedia encourages bakers to basically raid the snacks pantry and dump its contents into a batch of cookie dough. More

Feel free to go crazy with add-ins when making these Everything-but-the-Kitchen-Sink Cookies, we're talking everything from sugary butterscotch chips and coconut to salty snacks like Fritos and tortilla chips. Seriously, the sweeter and saltier, the better. More

These yeasted rolls are boiled and then baked, so they have the wonderfully chewy texture of pretzels and a dense, faintly sweet crumb. Their dinner roll size makes them perfect to have alongside your schnitzel, or even as a snack with your first beer. More

The savory, creamless version of Pocky, Pretz are also made by Glico, presumably in the exact same long-skinny-cylindrical biscuit factory. Like many of the Japanese snacks, they come in fairly idiosyncratic flavors. More

These pretzel rolls are basically soft pretzels that have not been given the signature pretzel twist. Split them and fill them with thick-sliced bacon and some nice grainy mustard and you've got a hearty, filling brunch. More

What do you think of pretzel buns? I've been seeing them pop up on burgers from time to time, but I think they also work wonders for other sandwiches. Take this recipe, which was inspired by one of my favorite local sandwich shops, Hannah's Bretzel in Chicago. While I wasn't able to quite nail the perfection of their sandwiches—no doubt due to not having their freshly made bread—it definitely worked. More